THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

Hello one and all:

I have just added the ideas expressed below into the Human Mind book as a result of my email interaction with a member of the team at Dorrance Publishers, whose name is Bill Berger.  Thanks Bill.

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

The latest book that I am reading is called, --- Rebel Souls.  Its author is Justin Martin who had the book published in 2014.   It is an  autobiography of a group of people who were called Bohemians and its milieu occurs about 160 years ago just before, during  and after the American Civil War. 

One of the individuals is Walt Whitman and although I knew next to nothing about him, I was somewhat surprised to discover that he was a homosexual.   His most intense attachment was to a younger man named Peter Doyle.
 

Eventually Whitman suffered a stroke that in all probability was brought on by post-traumatic stress disorder when he was volunteering as a nurse to wounded soldiers in a hospital in the capital city of Washington during the war.   

This left him vulnerable to further complications because of the end of his relationship with the aforementioned Peter Doyle after a considerable amount of time spent together.

Other important historical players in the story were the Booth brothers.  There were 3 of them but of course John Wilkes Booth turned out to be the uncontested infamous one of the three brothers.   Obviously Abraham Lincoln’s story plays an important part in the book also. 

One of the most significant memories of Lincoln, besides his assassination, occurred when he introduced the Emancipation Proclamation to his close Cabinet members.   He called them together and began his speech rather circuitously in the following manner:
 

He began by reading from one of Artemus Ward's books on humor.  Ward is considered to be America’s first stand-up  comic although that term was not in use when Artemus was doing his touring around America and beyond.

Lincoln made the following statement:  “ With the fearful strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh; I would surely have died and you need this medicine as much as I do.”  Lincoln then put down Ward’s book and began to read from his Emancipation Proclamation which was the first time that he had shared such thoughts with his cabinet members.

I stated earlier in the Human Mind book that before the current drugs were available, some people with mental issues would laugh uncontrollably.   In effect they were trying to self-medicate themselves.  

At another point in the book I quote Mohandas Gandhi as saying: --- “If I had not used humor, I would surely have gone insane.”  Both of these men, Gandhi and Lincoln were right.

A strange thing has happened to my impressions as a result of reading this book.  I must admit that the following thoughts were coalescing inside my mind prior to reading this book but this represents the first time that I have actually committed them to print.

It seemed to me for a certain amount of time that I was “gifted” in some miraculous way so that I would pick out books that helped to validate my ideas about the human mind.   

Now, I have corrected that wrong impression by realizing that since the conglomeration theory about distorted fears is universal in scope, therefore every book is a possible authenticator of my ideas and no such “miraculous gift” is at my beck and call. 

I include these thoughts so that those who are reading these words and understand the importance of them, do not come to the same wrong conclusion that I came to.  You do not have some “mystical gift.”    Your impressions are resonant with the authenticity of my ideas.